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Cham Albanians

"Cham Albanian" redirects here. For the dialect, see Cham Albanian dialect.
For the Austronesian ethnic group, see Chams.

Cham Albanians
Total population
c. 170,000[1]–690,000[2][3]
Regions with significant populations
 Albania120,000[4]–250,000[2]
 Greece44 Muslim Chams,[5] 40,000 Christian Orthodox Chams[2][6]
 Turkey80,000–100,000[7]
 United States50,000–70,000[2][7]
Languages
Albaniana (Cham Albanian dialect)
Religion
Islam (majority)
Orthodox Christianity (minority)
a. Also Greek, Turkish, and English, depending on residing state.

Cham Albanians or Chams (Albanian: Çamë; Greek: Τσάμηδες, Tsámidhes), are a sub-group of Albanians who originally resided in the western part of the region of Epirus in southwestern Albania and northwestern Greece, an area known among Albanians as Chameria. The Chams have their own particular cultural identity within Albanian sub-groups. A number of Chams contributed to the Albanian national identity and played an important role in starting the renaissance of the Albanian culture in the 19th century. The Chams speak their own dialect of the Albanian language, the Cham Albanian dialect, which is a Southern Tosk Albanian dialect and one of the two most conservative ones; the other being Arvanitika.

During the late 1930s Chams suffered from intimidation and persecution under the dictatorship of General Metaxas.[2][8] Following the Italian occupation of Albania in 1939, the Chams became a prominent propaganda tool for the Italians and irredentist elements among them became more vocal. As a result, on the eve of the Greco-Italian War, Greek authorities deported the adult male Cham population to internment camps. After the occupation of Greece, large parts of the Muslim Cham population collaborated with Italian and German forces.[9][10][11][12] This fueled resentment among the local Greek population and in the aftermath of World War II the entire Muslim Cham population had to flee to Albania. Most Chams settled in Albania, while others formed émigré communities in Turkey and the United States, and today their descendants continue to live in these countries. Since the fall of Communism in Albania, Chams in Albania have campaigned for right of return to Greece and restoration of confiscated properties. According to Laurie Hart, the remaining Orthodox Cham communities in Epirus are nowadays assimilated and entirely identify with the Greek nation.[13] On the other hand, Bugajski includes the Orthodox among Cham Albanians.[6] In Albania, the Cham dialect and other traditions have been preserved, while in Greece linguistic rights and Orthodox Cham heritage have been suppressed in public space and been subject to assimilation policies. As such, the use of Albanian has been relegated to private space within the household.[14]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference Victor was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ a b c d e Vickers, Miranda. The Cham Issue - Where to Now? (PDF). Defence Academy of the United Kingdom. pp. 1–2. Retrieved 3 August 2017.
  3. ^ Ahmed, Akbar (2018). Journey Into Europe: Islam, Immigration, and Identity. Brookings Institution Press. p. 303. ISBN 9780815727590.
  4. ^ Antonina Zhelyazkova. Urgent anthropology. Vol. 3. Problems of Multiethnicity in the Western Balkans Archived 19 March 2009 at the Wayback Machine. International Center for Minority Studies and Intercultural Relations. Sofia 2004. ISBN 978-954-8872-53-9, p. 67.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Ktistakis9 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ a b Bugajski, J. (2013). Return of the Balkans: Challenges to European Integration and U.S. Disengagement. Letort papers. Strategic Studies Institute, U.S. Army War College Press. p. 92.
  7. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Berisha was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ Vickers, Miranda. The Cham Issue - Where to Now? (PDF). Defence Academy of the United Kingdom. p. 12. Retrieved 3 August 2017. The Greeks must accept the historical truth about the confiscation of Cham-owned land, and the intimidation and persecution the Chams suffered under the dictatorship of General Metaxas during the late 1930s.
  9. ^ Meyer, Hermann Frank (2008). Blutiges Edelweiß: Die 1. Gebirgs-division im zweiten Weltkrieg [Bloodstained Edelweiss. The 1st Mountain-Division in WWII] (in German). Ch. Links Verlag. p. 705. ISBN 978-3-86153-447-1. The Albanian minority of the Chams collaborated in large parts with the Italians and the Germans.
  10. ^ Russell King, Nicola Mai, Stephanie Schwandner-Sievers, The New Albanian Migration, Sussex Academic Press, 2005, ISBN 9781903900789, p. 67.
  11. ^ M. Mazower (ed.), After The War Was Over: Reconstructing the Family, Nation and State in Greece, 1943–1960, Princeton University Press, 1960, ISBN 9780691058412, p. 25.
  12. ^ Victor Roudometof; Roland Robertson (2001). Nationalism, Globalization, and Orthodoxy: The Social Origins of Ethnic Conflict in the Balkans. Westport, Conn. [u.a.]: Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 190–. ISBN 978-0-313-31949-5. "During World War II, the majority of Chams sided with the Axis forces..."
  13. ^ Hart, Laurie Kain (1999). "Culture, Civilization, and Demarcation at the Northwest Borders of Greece". American Ethnologist. 26: 196. doi:10.1525/ae.1999.26.1.196. Archived from the original on 12 November 2014. Retrieved 9 September 2017. Speaking Albanian, for example, is not a predictor with respect to other matters of identity .. There are also long standing Christian Albanian (or Arvanitika speaking) communities both in Epirus and the Florina district of Macedonia with unquestioned identification with the Greek nation. .. The Tschamides were both Christians and Muslims by the late 18th century [in the 20th century, Cham applies to Muslim only]
  14. ^ Vickers 2007, p. 2 "Whereas in Albania and the diaspora Cham communities have managed to preserve their dialect, traditions and folk songs, in Greece itself those Orthodox Chams, now numbering around 40,000, who were allowed to remain in Greece, have suffered from assimilation and the public suppression of their Albanian heritage and language. As a result, Albanian is only spoken privately in the home."

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